Palestine
Latest
Google fires engineer who protested at a company-sponsored Israeli tech conference
"I'm a Google software engineer and I refuse to build technology that powers genocide or surveillance!" The engineer shouted as such, interrupting a speech by Barak Regev, Google Israel's managing director, during an Israeli tech event in New York.
X changes its policy around 'newsworthy' posts that would otherwise break rules
Twitter has modified its policy on newsworthy content to allow more posts that would usually break its rules to remain on the platform. The company made the change amid the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Facebook staff call for review of pro-Palestinian content policies
Almost 200 Facebook employees have signed a letter asking the company to review and possibly change its approach to moderating pro-Palestinian content.
Instagram will surface more reshared posts amid Palestinian censorship claims
Instagram is changing its algorithm to rank reshared posts more fairly amid Palestinian claims it was censoring content.
Pro-Palestinian activists tank Facebook app ratings to protest alleged censorship
Pro-Palestinian activists are tanking Facebook's ratings in Apple's App Store and Google Play in protest over alleged censorship.
Israeli extremists are using chat apps to organize violent attacks against Palestinians
As hostilities escalate between Israel and Hamas, some Israelis have turned to chat apps to organize violent attacks against Palestinians.
Microsoft pulls its smaller investments in facial recognition tech
Microsoft has been vocal about setting limits on facial recognition, and it's now backing that up with its financial support -- or lack thereof. The company is ending minority investments in facial recognition startups and is pulling its stake in AnyVision, an Israeli startup whose recognition tech drew controversy when word emerged of its use at West Bank checkpoints. These investments don't allow for the "level of oversight or control" Microsoft likes over facial recognition, according to a joint statement from Microsoft's M12 venture capital fund and AnyVision. The Windows maker will instead focus on larger investments where it has more of a say.
Airbnb reverses ban on West Bank listings
Airbnb is changing course on its earlier decision to ban listings for Israeli settlements in the West Bank. As part of a settlement with a pro-Israel law organization that had sued over the ban, Airbnb said it would allow listings in the hotly contested region. However, it vowed to donate any profits from listings to unspecified humanitarian aid groups. The company planned a similar move for other disputed territories, including the regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in eastern Europe.
Airbnb will remove guest home listings in the West Bank
To date, Airbnb has argued that it would allow home listings in disputed areas in the name of connecting people. Now, it's changing its mind. The company plans to remove roughly 200 listings in Israeli settlements in the West Bank after rethinking its policies for contested regions. Airbnb didn't provide a detailed explanation of its rationale in this specific instance, but noted that the listings are "at the core of the dispute between Israelis and Palestinians."
Facebook briefly suspended accounts of Palestinian journalists
Last week, seven Palestinian editors from two different publications reported that they had been locked out of their personal Facebook accounts without notice or reason. The social giant told The Electronic Intifada that it was accidental and restored access to six of them by Saturday, though one remains suspended as of press time. But employees from both Shehab News Agency and Quds News Network doubt that their colleagues were banned in error. Rather, they have pointed to Facebook's recent agreement with Israel earlier this month to jointly crack down on "incitement" by Palestinians on social media.
Facebook works with Israel to curb posts inciting violence
Facebook is no stranger to fighting terrorism online, but it's about to take those efforts one step further. In the wake of lawsuits from terror victims' families, the social network is partnering with Israel on ways to track and pull content that incites violence. The country claims that a year-long surge in Palestinian violence was partly sparked by social posts, and hopes that tighter controls on those posts will help douse those flames. The two aren't saying exactly what they'll do, but Facebook has stressed its belief that it can fight extremism through a "strong partnership" between public and private organizations.
Google explains why Palestine isn't labeled in Maps
Services like Google Maps have not just functional but symbolic importance, as a bug on a map of Israel has proved. A Gaza City journalism group spotted a change in the way Google represented Palestine on a map of Israel, causing outrage on both mainstream and social media in the Middle East. "[Our group] condemns the crime carried out by Google in deleting the name of Palestine, and calls for Google to rescind its decision and apologize to the Palestinian people," the Forum of Palestinian Journalists said in a statement.
Families of terror victims in Israel sue Facebook for $1 billion
The families of five Israeli and US citizens killed by Palestinian attacks on Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and the West Bank are suing Facebook for $1 billion in damages, Reuters reports today. In their lawsuit, the plaintiffs claim the social network "played an essential role in Hamas's ability to carry out its terrorist activities" and made it easier for the group to "communicate, recruit members, plan and carry out attacks, and strike fear in its enemies."
Waze app leads IDF soldiers into Palestine, conflict erupts
At least one Palestinian man is dead, and another 10 reportedly have been severely wounded, after an Israeli Defense Force truck strayed into the Kalandia Palestine refugee camp on Monday -- reportedly at the direction of the Waze navigation app. Multiple reports state that two members of the IDF's canine unit on an "administrative task" were travelling a road they thought was within the Israeli border. It wasn't, inciting residents who began throwing stones at the truck. When a hurled firebomb set the truck alight, the IDF soldiers ditched the vehicle and ran in different directions. One soldier managed to call for reinforcements. However, the other soldier left his phone in the truck and could not be immediately accounted. In response, the IDF deployed additional IDF ground and air forces to search for him. He was found, unharmed, a few hours later.
Hacker posts info on thousands of Homeland Security employees
The US government has yet another security breach on its hands. Late yesterday, a Twitter account posted a Department of Homeland Security staff directory containing names, titles, email addresses, phone numbers and more for over 9,000 employees. "This is for Palestine, Ramallah, West Bank, Gaza, This is for the child that is searching for an answer," the post read. What's more, the hacker claims they have details on 20,000 FBI employees and plan to leak those next.
Bringing empathy to the Middle East through gaming
Navit Keren grew up in Israel. She's lived through the signing of historic peace treaties, and horrific terrorist attacks. Just as important though, she's witness to the dramatic deterioration of the relationship between Israelis and Palestinians. The biggest problem she sees, is a lack of empathy. Those living on the other side of the divide are not people, but enemies. "Others" to be feared and hated. Her effort to bridge the gap between the two sides is a pretty novel one: a location-based game. Welcome to the West Bank is merely a working title, but it gets right to the heart of the game. Israeli citizens, primarily teenagers, would play as Palestinian teenagers living in the West Bank. Basically she's asking people to walk a mile in someone else's virtual shoes.
Google pulls Gaza-themed Android app from Play Store following outcry
Google regularly screens Android apps in the Play Store, but it's usually focused on blocking malware and scams rather than the substance of the apps themselves. Today, though, it took the rare step of policing content by removing Bomb Gaza, a game that made light of the current conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. A spokesman would only tell Reuters that it pulls apps which "violate [the company's] policies," but the forced exit came not long after outrage from Play Store users who felt that the game trivialized very real casualties. Most likely, Google took the title down due to terms of service that forbid hate speech and abusive material; users can flag apps they find offensive, so it wouldn't have taken much to prompt action. While the move isn't completely surprising as a result, it's a reminder that Google will clamp down when software is virtually tailor-made for antagonizing entire cultures.
Flame malware extinguishes itself, Microsoft protects against future burns
The folks behind that nasty Flame trojan that burned its way through the Middle East aren't the kind to brag -- the malware's manufacturers apparently started dousing their own fire last week. According to Symantec reports, several compromised machines retrieved a file named browse32.ocx from Flame controlled servers, which promptly removed all traces of the malware from the infected systems. Although the attackers seem spooked, Microsoft isn't taking any chances, and has issued a fix to its Windows Server Update Services to block future attacks. The update hopes to protect networked machines from a similar attack by requiring HTTPS inspection servers to funnel Windows update traffic through an exception rule, bypassing its inspection. The attackers? "They're trying to cover their tracks in any way they can," Victor Thakur, principal security response manager at Symantec told the LA Times, "They know they're being watched." Check out the source link below for the Symantec's run down of the trojan's retreat.
Flame malware snoops on PCs across the Middle East, makes Stuxnet look small-time
Much ado was made when security experts found Stuxnet wreaking havoc, but it's looking as though the malware was just a prelude to a much more elaborate attack that's plaguing the Middle East. Flame, a backdoor Windows trojan, doesn't just sniff and steal nearby network traffic info -- it uses your computer's hardware against you. The rogue code nabs phone data over Bluetooth, spreads over USB drives and records conversations from the PC's microphone. If that isn't enough to set even the slightly paranoid on edge, it's also so complex that it has to infect a PC in stages; Flame may have been attacking computers since 2010 without being spotted, and researchers at Kaspersky think it may be a decade before they know just how much damage the code can wreak. No culprit has been pinpointed yet, but a link to the same printer spool vulnerability used by Stuxnet has led researchers to suspect that it may be another instance of a targeted cyberwar attack given that Iran, Syria and a handful of other countries in the region are almost exclusively marked as targets. Even if you live in a 'safe' region, we'd keep an eye out for any suspicious activity knowing that even a fully updated Windows 7 PC can be compromised.
IndieCade: International Festival Finalists #6-10
All week, Joystiq will be revealing the 25 finalists for the IndieCade: International Festival of Independent Games, set to take place October 10 through 17 in Bellevue, Washington. The winners will be announced on October 11.MachinariumWe would hope it'd be enough to say it's from the creators of Samorost, but if we have to go on, Machinarium takes the classic point-and-click adventure game model and applies it to a world with more character than the 1,000 copies of Scrapland sitting in American McGee's garage waiting to be loved.%Gallery-32464%
